Discovered attack — what it means in chess
Moving one piece to unveil an attack from a piece behind it.
Moving one piece to unveil an attack from a piece behind it.
A discovered attack is two pieces working as one. You move a front piece out of the way, and the piece behind it — a bishop, rook, or queen — delivers an attack that was hidden a moment ago. What makes it punishing is that the piece you move can make its own threat as it leaves, so the opponent faces two attacks created by a single move.
The reason discovered attacks are so hard to see is that they break the usual rule of chess vision — the piece that does the damage is not the piece that moves. Your eye follows the knight, and while it is following the knight, the bishop is quietly delivering the real threat from behind. Two conditions have to be true at once: a long-range piece aimed at something valuable, and a friendly piece standing on the same line, ready to leave with a threat of its own. When both are on the board, look for the square where the mover creates a second attack — that is where the whole idea earns its material.
[[board startfen="3q2kr/5p1p/8/4N3/8/8/1B6/6K1 w - - 0 1" pgn="1. Nc6 Qe7 2. Bxh8" caption="A discovered attack: moving the knight unveils the bishop behind it." notes="White to move. The bishop on b2 aims down the long diagonal, but its own knight on e5 is in the way. Nc6 — the knight leaves with its own threat (it attacks the queen on d8) and unveils the bishop's hit on the rook on h8. Two attacks, one move. Black saves the queen... ...and Bxh8 collects the rook."]]
The Endgame Society glossary defines more than 240 chess terms — rules, notation, tactics, strategy, pawn structures, endgames, and openings — in language a beginner can act on rather than dictionary shorthand.